Wonderful Wednesday

Today Eric took a personal day from work --after yesterday, can you blame him?-- and the five of us packed a picnic lunch and headed to a wonderful local park. We played on the playground, rode our bikes along a wooded path to the water and then rented a paddle boat & had our lunch on the Bay. It was a beautiful 70 degrees and one of the best family days we've had. Just 2 months ago, Yaojie did not have the leg muscles to pedal his tricycle, now he can patter along, nearly keeping up with Josh and Cara. One month ago, he was still terrified of dogs, today he reacted with only mild annoyance when a strange German Shepherd licked his face. Only weeks ago, he was still unsteady on the backyard swing, today he showed off how he could pump his legs to swing higher. It's staggering when you take stock of his improvements. And he's not the only one learning and growing each day: When Yaojie started to gear up for a tantrum on the ride home --his first of the day-- I tried a new approach: "Oh, Eric," I said loudly and excitedly so that the kids would be sure to overhear, "didn't Yaojie do such a great job sharing today? Wasn't that so nice of him and Josh to take turns steering the paddle boat? And wasn't Cara a fast peddler on her bike!" Sure and begorrah, it worked. The impending tantrum defused and soon all the children were smiling over the happy memories of the day and beaming with pride over my complements. Eric glanced at me in the rear-view mirror. We were beaming, too.